Church volunteer stole half a million dollars to pay for lavish wedding and luxury lifestyle

A church in New Jersey is reeling after it emerged that a senior volunteer may have stolen more than half a million dollars over a five year period.

Taisha D. Smith-DeJoseph, who worked as the financial secretary of St. Paul’s Baptist Church in Florence Township, has been charged with embezzling more than half a million dollars from it to pay for thousands of online purchases and even her own wedding.

Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina announced that Smith-DeJoseph, 43, of Willingboro, New Jersey, may have diverted up to $561,777 in funds over a spending spree that stretched for over five years. DeJoseph allegedly made 2,718 purchases on PayPal and 805 on Amazon over that time period, according to a report in the Burlington County Times.

Certainly, her colleagues eventually suspected something was up, leading to her downfall.

“The investigation began after officials from St. Paul’s Baptist Church who suspected the theft contacted the BCPO (Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office) Financial Crimes Unit,” the BCPO said in a statement.

Smith-DeJoseph, along with the reported unapproved spending, also allegedly issued payroll and supply reimbursement checks from the church’s coffers and fabricated monthly financial statements to hide her tracks from other church officials.

She allegedly failed to file tax returns for 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018 in an attempt to hide her embezzlement scheme from the government. In 2017 she filed a fraudulent tax return.

“The investigation revealed that Smith-DeJoseph used the money to pay her car loans, rent, credit card expenses, satellite television and cell phone bills, to make hundreds of online purchases and even to pay for her wedding at a Burlington County venue,” said the BCPO.

The scale of the betrayal by a trusted steward of the church’s finances has left many at St. Paul’s heartbroken.

Pastor Fred Jackson said:

“We put our trust in other people as well as in God and sometimes that trust is misplaced … it is very hurtful for the entire congregation.”

	FLORENCE TOWNSHIP, NEW JERSEY
Location:	16 miles south of NJ state capital Trenton
Population:	12,109
Median Household Income:	$75,219
Quirky Fact:	Florence and nearby towns in Burlington County have become prominent regional warehouse centers, attracting corporations like Amazon to build such facilities there.